Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!whuts!picuxa!gp
From: gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: exit(main(argc,argv,env));
Message-ID: <421@picuxa.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 87 13:11:32 GMT
References: <10875@brl-adm.ARPA> <1451@houdi.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Parsippany NJ
Lines: 12
Summary: main() not always the first called

In article <1451@houdi.UUCP>, marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT) writes:
> 
> The key question is where the exit(main(..)) was found.  Since main()
> is the first function called, no statement is needed to invoke main(). 
> Put it another way, since main() is invoked anyway, any statement that
> calls main() must call it recursively.  Why would anybody do that?


On the compilers that I have seen, main() isn't the first routine called.
Rather, some startup code is included (typically called _main()) that in
turn invokes main().  Therefor exit(main(argc,argv,envp)) is an efficient
way (it saves a variable) to call main and return an exit status.